Obama v Arpaio: Despite Federal Orders, Sheriff Joe Arpaio Continues Roundups

PHOENIX, Ariz. News - Sheriff Joe Arpaio,known for cracking down on people who are in the country illegally launched a crime and immigration sweep in northwestern metro Phoenix on Friday. His new secret weapon unveiled today - cameras to record everything his deputies do. Andrew Hasbun reports.

Meantime, Arpaio, whose sweeps have led to allegations of racial profiling, said the recent rebuff from Washington won't stop him. He said he can still arrest immigrants under a state smuggling law and a federal law that gives all local police agencies more limited power to detain suspected illegal immigrants.

"It doesn't bother me, because we are going to do the same thing," Arpaio said. "I am the elected sheriff. I don't take orders from the federal government."

The officers were participating in a federal program that grants a limited number of local police departments special powers to make immigration arrests and speed up deportation. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stripped Arpaio of his power to let 100 deputies make federal immigration arrests, but renewed another agreement that allows 60 jails officers to determine the immigration status of people in jail.

The sheriff's sweeps in some heavily Latino areas of metro Phoenix have drawn criticism that Arpaio's deputies racially profile people. Arpaio said people pulled over in the sweeps were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes and that it was only afterward that deputies found many of them were illegal immigrants.

The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Arpaio's office over allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures.

"He is doing this to thumb his nose at the Obama administration," said Lydia Guzman, president of the Hispanic civil rights group Somos America.

The sweeps have discouraged some Hispanics who have witnessed or been victims of crime to refuse to call Arpaio's deputies, for fear of mistreatment, Guzman said.

Observers who are part of Guzman's group fanned out across the area of the sweeps with video cameras to record exchanges between deputies and motorists.

Kris Kobach, a law professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City and an advocate of expanding local immigration efforts, said Arpaio's office -- like every other local police agency -- can detain people suspected of immigration violations for a day or two until federal authorities come to pick them up.

In the past, Arpaio could have held such immigrants for longer than two days and conducted investigations of smuggling rings, Kobach said.

"It's really a slight narrowing, but it's not much," said Kobach, who worked as an immigration law adviser to then-U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft from 2001-2003.

Dan Pochoda, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing people who filed a lawsuit over the sweeps, said Arpaio still can't pull over motorists solely because they are suspected of being illegal immigrants.

"He can't do it under the terms he is claiming. He has indicated that he can stop people without the suspicion, based on what they look like, what they sound like," Pochoda said.

Arpaio said the Bush administration had no complaints about his use of the special federal powers, but all that has changed with the Obama administration.

"What's changed?" Arpaio asked. "Politics has changed, because they don't like us going on the streets to catch illegals."

Email comments to writeinside@hotmail.com or post them below. To post a comment if you do not have a Google/Blogger account, just select anonymous for your identity.

Shaun P. Attwood

22 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:57 AM

    Good old Joke... above Federal Law. We shall see.

    Shelleigh Dick-Spicer

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  2. Anonymous5:57 AM

    HOPE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CAN STOP HIM HE'S EVIL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Mike Peek

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  3. Anonymous5:58 AM

    Pure. evil.

    Shelleigh Dick-Spicer

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  4. Anonymous5:58 AM

    SOOOOO EVIL!!!!!!N I DON'T HATE ANYBODY IN AZ MORE THAN HIM!!!!!!

    Mike Peek

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  5. Anonymous5:59 AM

    I don't live in AZ but from what I've read, the Phoenix PD seems to have to take care of all the real law enforcement needs in PHX (i.e. gang crime, robbery, etc) on its own without help from the county as Joe is content to engage in right-wing anti-immigrant posturing.

    Richard Burns

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  6. Anonymous5:59 AM

    Should be more Offices, protecting legal citizens! Illegal aliens put us all in danger! Just look at what that guy in Texas did- he shot and killed an illegal alien- who was robbing a neighbour's house. this case is actually going to the supreme court. so i can't wait to see what the justices decide it. I don't feel that illegal aliens should have the same rights as legal residents.

    Josh Kampe

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  7. Anonymous6:00 AM

    everybody is a human being and people should never forget that. everybody deserves a fair treatment and a fair trial. by the way, a lot of well known psychologists have found out, that everybody could become a murdererer, so maybe the illegal alien is in all of us. maybe we should start support poor families, educate everybody and not let kids hang...

    Ina Hubert

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  8. Anonymous6:01 AM

    Josh, that stupid redneck in Texas committed murder. That burglar was neither robbing him nor putting his life/safety in danger. And...in what regard do you not feel that illegal immigrants should have the same rights as legal residents? Are you referring to Habeas Corpus? What's to stop some of the more bigoted law enforcement officers from ...

    Richard Burns

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  9. Anonymous6:01 AM

    you are so right richard!!!

    Ina Hubert

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  10. Anonymous6:01 AM

    I agree, as well, Richard.

    Shelleigh Dick-Spicer

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  11. Anonymous6:02 AM

    Having read your note, which is entirely onesided and derivative of local news reports with nothing new to tell me, I will in future be ignoring them. An aapologist for Sheriff Joe should at least have all the facts at his fingertips.

    Denise Heap

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  12. Anonymous6:03 AM

    Apologist for Sheriff Joe? Jon is by NO means an apologist for Sheriff Joe, Ms. Heap. Read previous entries and his biography, please.

    Shelleigh Dick-Spicer

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  13. Anonymous6:04 AM

    Hello Ms. Heap.
    My English is not good because I am from Germany.
    Shaun Attwood is my boyfriend and he was in the jail from Sheriff Arpaio. He has suffered a lot. He is no a sympathizer from Arpaio!!!
    Greetings from Germany.

    Kathi

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  14. Hello Denise Heap,

    Welcome to Jon's Jail Journal. I am Shaun Attwood, the author of this blog. I started the blog while in the custody of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The blog went on to attract international media attention to the conditions in the Madison Street jail, which has since been closed down. So I am by no means an apologist for Arpaio.

    I am continuing this blog so that prisoners voices can be heard around the world, and to keep people informed about the injustices still being committed by Arpaio in flagrant violation of federal law.

    I've used news stories on the weekends to show how things are heating up between the Arpaio regime and the Obama administration. These are really exciting times for us anti-Arpaio campaigners, as Arpaio basically snubbed the Feds last Friday with his illegal sweep. It'll be interesting to see how the Obama administration responds to this.

    I think Arpaio's days are numbered.

    I've spent the last 2 years writing a book about my time in his jail system, through which I hope to expose the conditions to a wider audience and really let the public know what's going on in there.

    Thanks for taking the time to comment at Jon's Jail Journal!

    Shaun Attwood

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  15. To My Regular Readers,

    If you are wondering where all of these comments are coming from, Kathi in Germany has been working hard on Jon's Jail Journal sites at both Facebook and MySpace. This weekend there has been a surge in comments at the Facebook site (see favourite links if you want to click over).

    Kudos to Kathi!!!!!!!!!

    Shaun Attwood

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  16. Anonymous7:38 AM

    Personally Shaun, I support Sheriff Jor Arpaio for upholding the laws of our land. I'm so sorry you don't. He is keeping his oath of office. I give him lots of credit for that when it is a lot easier to 'go with the flow' of criminality at this point. Bless Sheriff Joe Arpaio. We need to support the people/heros in office that are upholding their oath's of office even when it is unpopular.

    Mary Jane Moore-Wright

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  17. Anonymous7:38 AM

    When Bull Connor defied the the government it was not an act of heroism niether is this. Thank you for speaking for justice and equality.

    Carlos Villegas

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  18. Anonymous7:39 AM

    I am definitely speaking up for Justice, just maybe not your idea of Justice. All people who are here illegally need to be responsible and and become legal. Once they are legal and responsible there is no problem. The key words here: LEGAL & ILLEGAL, when the government is making new laws that are inconsistent with laws WE the Legal Citizens of this country want..then the Sheriff has a duty to follow the laws of this land that the Legal Citizens have determined to be the laws of the land. Not the make-shift criminal government that has now taken control and is looting this country and part of that has to do with ILLEGALS!!!!!

    Mary Jane Moore-Wright

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  19. Anonymous7:40 AM

    Yeah, let world know kind of man he is! When you told me about him the first time I had no idea. Yesterday I saw his face on the cover of the Military History mag entitled "U.S. toughest sheriff", I was about to explode.

    Weißes Geschöpf

    John Doe

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  20. Mary Jane Moore-Wright said,
    "We need to support the people/heroes in office that are upholding their oath's of office even when it is unpopular."

    And to that I just have to say that there is absolutely nothing heroic about killing people who have not even been prosecuted with a crime. Or to support criminal behavior of a sheriff who has long been out of control. There is this really great song that Billy Joel sings called "Shades of Grey" that pretty much sums up how my own point of view has evolved and grown over the years.

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  21. Anonymous11:38 AM

    good blog man. joe arpaio may be a knob, but what do you suggest we do about the illegal alien problem here in cali, az, tx?

    Eric Ryan

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  22. thanks, eric
    i was an illegal-alien stockbroker, it's too complex an issue for me to get going on

    ReplyDelete